German Government Reaffirms Status as BootlickingToady to U.S.

The regime of Chancellor Angela Merkel has barred Edward Snowden from coming to Germany to testify before a Parliamentary committee. This despite the fact that Snowden revealed not just massive spying on German citizens by the NSA, with the help of the German secret police, but deliberate targeting of Merkel's own cellphone, starting before she became Chancellor.

Her regime apparatchiks informed the committee in writing that allowing Snowden in to testify would "run counter to the political interests of the Federal Republic" and "put a grave and permanent strain" on US-German relations. Unlike tapping their Chancellor's phone, apparently. Which speaks volumes about Germany's relationship to the U.S., and the hollowness of German “democracy,” since a parliamentary committee can be stymied in its work in this high-handed fashion.

Merkel has been summoned to the capital of the Empire, Washington, D.C., to “confer” about forcing Russia to abandon Ukraine, and to get Europe to agree to a trade deal to the U.S.' liking. (The U.S. has the upper hand in such negotiations not only because of its superior power, but because it knows exactly what the other side in the negotiations are thinking, strategizing, and the minimums they'll accept, thanks to the NSA tapping and bugging all European governments' and pan-European institutions' computers, phones, and offices, which we also know now thanks to Edward Snowden.) Apparently they don't trust phones so they need to speak in person. And notice who goes to see who. The subservient one is summoned into the presence of the superior one.

The U.S. has even refused to agree to stop spying on allies like Germany, as Germany has asked.

To add insult to injury, it only took a mere U.S. Assistant Secretary of State to bar Germany's pick for Ukrainian leader from even entering the puppet government (the boxer Vitali Klitschko), as we know from the infamous “Fuck the EU” phone call between the imperious Victoria Nuland and the U.S. ambassador in Ukraine, the smarmy Geoffrey Pyatt. [See “U.S. Enlisted UN Stooges in Ukraine Subversion.”]

The Green Party leader, Simone Peter, had this to say of Merkel: "Merkel is displaying cowardice towards our ally America. We owe the Americans nothing in this respect. The government must at least make a serious effort to safely bring Snowden to Germany and let him give evidence here. But Merkel doesn't want that."

Merkel will do as she's told about Ukraine. A Good German, she is an authoritarian who obeys superiors. And the U.S. president is clearly her superior. The only opposing force is the economic interests of German business that is invested in Russia, trades with Russia, buys fuel supplies from Russia. That puts her in a squeeze between opposing forces.

The mystery is why the German people chose to be ruled by this dull matron. There is a Green Party, and a Left Party, whose members in parliament were miffed by the blocking of Snowden from appearing to help parliament do its job. They were overruled by the government, a coalition of the right-wing “Christian Democratic” party (Merkel's party) and the fake-liberal “Social Democrats.”

Of course, Snowden can still testify from Russia by remote video connection, for example. That will enable the NSA to record the testimony in real time. Another victory for America! U-S-A! U-S-A!

Annals of Newspeak

In George Orwell's famous classic of totalitarianism, 1984, the ruling dictatorship had its own vocabulary, called Newspeak, which basically meant inverting words to mean the opposite of their previous meanings. For example, Slavery is Freedom.

Barack Obama and his minions have shown themselves to be assiduous disciples of the principle of Newspeak; to invert the meanings of words. Examples are legion: here are two recent ones I happened to notice.

In Ukraine, a violent mob overthrew the elected government, and the U.S. installed replacement “leaders.” These people Obama refers to as “democratic leaders.” Unelected, yet somehow “democratic.” Capitalists better no longer sneer at Bolshevik misuse of the word “democratic.” [1]

Another recent example is Obama's secret police henchman John Brennan. Obama wanted Brennan to replace Democratic Party apparatchik Leon Panetta as CIA head a few years back, but Brennan's involvement in CIA torture programs scuttled that back then. So Brennan was brought to Obama's side to run Obama's drone assassination program for him. So beloved by Obama is Brennan, that Obama last year once again moved to install Brennan at the top of the CIA, and this time he succeeded.

Brennan, as you'd expect of a career secret police type like him, can barely open his mouth without lying. But he has a habitual phrase whenever he utters a real howler. It's “Nothing could be further from the truth.” So during his Senate confirmation hearings for CIA Director, in denying that the drone death program ever harmed a hair on an innocent person's head, he used the phrase. [2]

Now that he was caught spying on Senate Intelligence Committee staffers and stealing documents off their CIA-provided computers, he once again denies what is proven fact with the phrase “Nothing could be further from the truth."

You can be guaranteed that if John Brennan says of something that “Nothing could be further from the truth,” it's true. It's like a tell by a poker player, a dead giveaway.

1] See “Obama Dictates Terms to Russia To Keep Its Naval Base in Crimea.”

2] See “Jeremy Scahill: Assassinations of U.S. Citizens Largely Ignored at Brennan CIA Hearing,” democracynow.org, February 8^th, 2013.

Guide To Ukraine “Crisis” Vocabulary

First, “crisis.” That means, the U.S. isn't getting its way 100%.

“Ukraine.” Can mean the actual country. Often it means the satraps the U.S. installed in power in Kiev. As in “Ukraine asked for Western help against the Russian invasion [sic],” or, “the American government supports Ukraine.”

“International law.” The rules the U.S. insists on imposing, which boil down to, the U.S. does whatever it wants, and other nations do what the U.S. wants. If the U.S. does it, it's legal. So arranging the overthrow of the elected Ukrainian government by a neo-Nazi led mob and installing people in power handpicked by the U.S. State Department is perfectly legal, whereas Russia protecting its naval base in the Crimea and letting people vote in a referendum to choose to secede from western Ukraine or not is “a violation of international law.” And of the Ukrainian Constitution, too, which apparently has a provision allowing for neo-Nazi hoodlums to overthrow the government and its replacement by U.S.-approved puppets.

“The international community.” All the lackey and stooge nations that line up behind the U.S.

“The rights of all the Ukrainian people.” The U.S. decrees there shall be no partition and the entirely of Ukraine shall henceforth be in the U.S. domain. Self-determination for the populace of eastern Ukraine is not allowed. Controlled elections next year will ratify U.S. and neo-Nazi dominance of Ukraine.

“The territorial integrity of Ukraine.” No self-determination by the people of eastern Ukraine shall be allowed. A secession referendum is intolerable to the U.S. bloc, aka “the West.”

“Legitimate government.” The government of the U.S' choosing. See Obama statement of March 6th.

“Democratic leaders.” See “legitimate government.”

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“Democracy.” A regime obedient to U.S. wishes. This is what that word always means.

North Korean Regime Whipsaws South Korea- Again

Just a day or two after abruptly pulling the rug out from under South Korea on the latest “agreement” to allow cross-border family visits, the North Korean cult-government has cut sharply in the reverse direction again, offering “talks” on a variety of issues with the South. Like a dumb dog, the South Korean regime is falling for the latest mind-fucking teaser bait on offer.

At the same time, the North says the South (and U.S.) should be less hostile! (Umm, do they have any mirrors in North Korean?)

The BBC reports that this latest feint by the North has raised hopes in the South of better relations. (Feb. 11, 2014.)

Hope springs eternal in some quarters, apparently. Or some suckers are infinitely foolable, like Charlie Brown in the Peanuts cartoons, always being duped by Lucy and trying to kick the football she holds (which she always, without fail, pulls away at the last minute and Charlie ends up on his back).

North Korea's Latest Cruel Ruses

The pathological regime reneged after only one day on allowing family visits between the two Koreas. Yet another example of how they treat the people they rule like cockroaches.

And the psychopaths reneged in one day on an agreement to allow a visit to imprisoned U.S.-Korean missionary Kenneth Bay. They were supposedly going to free him from an 8 yr hard labor sentence.

Yet idiots keep trying to help the regime. Bay was running tour groups for the country.

The North Korean regime's beef this time was a single B-52 involved in military exercises with the South. Well if South Korean military exercises bother the regime so much, they might consider ceasing their military attacks on the South, like its sinking of a South Korean naval ship and the shelling of a South Korean island, both recent acts of unprovoked aggression.

Ok, from the North Korean regime's perspective, there was provocation- the South looked at them wrong, or forgot to say "how are you today?" or some demented crap. It's long past time to stop trying to appease these psychopaths. Just tell them- build all the nuclear weapons you like. Ever use them on our allies, and we'll blow you off the face of the earth, China be Damned. And if China doesn't like that, then let China jerk N.K.'s leash. N.K. is China's client, so N.K.'s misbehavior is China's responsibility. Oh, and if the U.S. sees the psychoregime building missiles that can reach any U.S. territory, preemptively blow them up.

Too bad Israel doesn't have a beef with North Korea- we know what would happen then! (See: Iraq, Iran.) Israel calls the tune on U.S. foreign policy where Israel is concerned. (Check out youtube.com videos with John Mersheimer and Stephen Walt for details explanations of what I mean.)

 

Assad Brings Polio Back to Syria

Children are being paralyzed by the polio virus, which thanks to the regime of dictator Bashir al-Assad

has returned to Syria. Assad's Alawite oligarchy, (Assad himself inherited the dictatorship from his exsanguinous dad, Hafez) has been waging a war of extermination against the civilian population of the country it misrules in areas where rebels have driven out Assad's gunmen. This war of extermination includes use of starvation, poison gases, and bombing and shelling of schools, markets, and wherever else groups of civilians of any ages might congregate and thus be killed in numbers.

From the beginning of the civil war over two years ago, the Assad regime has targeted health care workers suspected of aiding the wounded in rebel areas, and medical facilities have been special targets. The regime just murdered a doctor, after torturing him for 8 months first. With their special signature cruelty, Assad's minions led the doctor and his family to believe he was about to be released just before murdering him. Then, in their usual smarmy and hyper-cynical fashion, insisted he'd committed suicide. Pushing such obvious lies in the world's face is one way they show their contempt for morality and the opinion of humanity. Indeed, like the Nazis (a number of whom were harbored in Syria after World War II), the Assadites draw psychological strength from their openly reveling in their own immorality and criminality. This is characteristic of devils. They glory in their evil.

As part of the criminal way the Assad regime wages its war of extermination against anyone who dares question the Alawite oligarchy's right to rule Syria in perpetuity and without a peep of protest, as I said, medical services in areas it has lost control of are targeted for destruction, and medicine, like food, is cut off. Thus two enemies of humanity are effectively in league: the polio virus, and the Assad regime.

Both need and deserve to be extirpated from the face of the earth.

P.S. The UN just issued yet another report on Syria, this one on the torture, maiming, and sexual crimes

against children there, mostly by the regime, but some crimes committed by the rebels too. Not to worry: the UN diplomats and bureaucrats are still well fed and sleeping in comfortable beds. I'm sure this report will prompt some renewed hand-wringing and crocodile tears shed by the political bosses of the world.

Why Do the American Bourgeoisie Feel the Need to Ape the British Aristocracy?

I mean, if they really need to feel inferior to somebody, I can think of plenty of people they are inferior to- but not to English toffs.

I had this thought after reading the following in an article about David Samson, the mega-fixer lawyer at the top echelon of the State of New Jersey's ruling class, boss of a powerful law firm that arranges state contracts for its clients, and who was placed at the head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey by Republican Governor Chris Christie (to whom Samson is a key henchman). Samson has now been dragged into the news (and into daylight from the shadows where his ilk usually operate) by vengeful closing of the traffic lanes from Fort Lee, NJ onto the George Washington bridge for four days in early September to punish the Democratic mayor of that town for failing to endorse Christie for reelection last year. Here's the passage that prompted the thought, about Samson's wife:

“Mr. Samson’s wife, Joanna Dunn Samson, is a former deputy commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. They have a condominium not far from his firm’s main office, in West Orange, N.J., and a larger weekend home in Litchfield County, in Connecticut, where Ms. Samson has ridden horses with a local fox hunting club.” [1]

Fox hunting! Now where does that come from? It's hardly an indigenous American custom.

You see this a lot if you check out the “Style” section of the New York Times, for example (which is sort of a house organ for the American bourgeoisie, among its other functions), fox hunting, obsession with “royalty” and “titles,” antiquing, concern with one's “lineage,” and generally aping the mannerisms and folkways of the British upper classes, especially “royalty.”

In addition to an inferiority complex, perhaps they envy the English elite for not having to affect a common man, faux populism, All Men Are Created Equal facade.

Or maybe we should see it as merely an amusing affectation, a way of establishing one's social supremacy, hunting foxes on horseback. I would also observe that such British-centric affectations seems to be a phenomenon on the East Coast of the U.S., where old money traces itself back to the English landed gentry who founded the United States. Do you think there's foxhunting in Los Angeles, or Chicago? No, there are no foxes, but if there were, would they dress up in those funny costumes and hunt them? I doubt it.

Speaking of Anglo inferiority complexes, here's one that was simultaneously an inferiority AND superiority complex- the relationship to “the Jews.” I think the Anglo elite- indeed the elites of many European nations besides- felt threatened by “Jews” because they feared what they perceived to be their intelligence (valuing intellectual accomplishment is indeed common among Jews) and skill at making money. (Not a canard, and certainly not a put-down. Who doesn't wish they were good at amassing wealth? Of course the truth here is a matter of percentages- we could say a greater percentage of Jews are financially successful, or intellectually accomplished, than other groups. I think that is true, and something that Jewish people take pride in among themselves, but regard as anti-Semitic if a gentile says it. Certainly anti-Semites resent and hate Jews for it- but why should the envy of loathsome bigots prevent the rest of us from being able to acknowledge an aspect of reality, and try to explain and understand it? It depends on the spirit and intent of the observation whether it is anti-Semitic or not.)

1] “As Inquiry Widens, Port Authority Chief May Lose His Low Profile,” New York Times, January 15, 2014. Notice that this gratuitous fact- of interest to a certain social set- was tossed into an article about a political scandal to which it would seem to be irrelevant. And they give the wife's middle name, which is a family name, another marker of social connections for those in the know. In terms of useful information, there are details of Samson's dirty deals and power-connections over the years, which provides a case study in the institutionalized corruption of the U.S. socio-economic political system.

Egyptian Military Tyrants' New “Constitution” Squeaks By With Only 95% of Vote in Plebiscite

Surprising it wasn't 99%, as the opponents boycotted the vote, 450 people who tried to post posters against the “Constitution” were arrested, and the Egyptian propaganda system, which has been gushing a niagara of the most hysterical propaganda in support of the military oligarchy, has presented it as a patriotic duty to vote “yes.”

NPR has been awful in its coverage. Ignoring the massive repression.Even the BBC is better. As usual, one has to go to either the fringes of establishment (aka “respectable”) media for the facts you need, or alternatives like democracynow.org.

I Have To Move

This site is a "service" of Google. I have been unable to get the email notification functions to work. There are no answers online for this problem, and Google does not provide answers or any way to contact them.

Therefore I will be posting my essays at http://jasonzenith.wordpress.com/ and hopefully people signing up for email alerts there will get them.

I do not know if the secret police, with or without Google's connivance, sabotaged this blog, or if Google did it at the behest of the secret police. I have experienced sabotage of Google gmail accounts however, which makes me suspicious. (Microsoft's Hotmail and Yahoo! email deleted all the messages from my accounts immediately after 9/11/01, obviously on instructions from the secret police.)

Unfortunately communications are more difficult in a police state such as the U.S. than in a free country.

Republicans Getting (Even) Stupider (Than Before)

Since 2009, 11% fewer Republicans accept evolution as scientific fact. That's a pretty steep fall in only 4 years. Now only 43% of Republicans accept biological reality. [1]

In other words, more than half of Republicans are mentally in the 19^th century when it comes to science. (Actually the ones who believe in the “Biblical” age of the earth are more backward than that. Their explanation for dinosaur and other fossils? “God” put them here to test your faith. Oh.)

67% of Democrats believe the scientists and accept evolution- leaving one-third as ignorant troglodytes.

1] Poll by Pew Research Center.

GOP blogger at work.